The Secret Ingredient

My cookbook, The Secret Ingredient: Tasty Recipes With an Unusual Twist, includes more than 90 recipes for using common ingredients in unexpected combinations, like Popcorn Salad, Cola Sloppy Joes, Pork n' Bean Bread, Cheesy Chocolate Fudge and Twinkie Ice Cream Shakes. Try a few of the recipes on this blog.

For years, proud cooks have boasted that their own special version of a popular recipe included a “secret ingredient” that made their dish exceptional. They carefully guarded this “top secret” information to maintain a culinary edge over their competition.

Out of sheer boredom, many cooks began combining common ingredients in dishes where you’d least expect to find them, in an attempt to spark their own creativity and surprise and delight the taste buds of their families and dinner guests.

Many other unusual ingredient combinations came about because of cooking contests sponsored by large food and beverage corporations in their quest to generate more sales for their products. Cooks everywhere challenged their culinary expertise to concoct thousands of tasty recipes that have been passed down from generation to generation. And the search for these unique flavor combinations continues to this day.

The Secret Ingredient: Tasty Recipes with an Unusual Twist is a collection of just a small sampling of these recipes for using familiar ingredients in an unexpected combination.

This cookbook includes more than 90 uncommonly delicious recipes for beverages, appetizers, soups, salads, breads, sauces, main dishes, side dishes, sandwiches and desserts that use common ingredients with an unusual twist. You’ll want to try them all!

Gloria Hander Lyons, Author

About The Author

I write and publish cookbooks and how-to books about interior decorating, crafting, party planning, plus humorous short story collections. I have had several short stories published by Chicken Soup for the Soul. Now I'm writing fiction and blogging about my cancer journey bucket list.

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